How Turin turned against its Five Star Movement mayor

Chiara Appendino, elected in a ‘protest vote’ in 2016, has come under fire for failing to deliver on her promises

On the face of it, little has changed in the elegant northern Italian city of Turin since Chiara Appendino, of the Five Star Movement, became mayor in June 2016, ejecting a leftwing administration that had overseen the city’s transformation over the previous two decades.

The wide, tree-lined streets are just as clean, the variety of cultural attractions just as enviable, and the transport network, for the most part, just as efficient. But beneath the calm veneer, its people, usually known for their reserve, are seething.